(Listen to my interview with Oliver Peterson of 6PR on this subject)

Can I charge a standard single surcharge across multiple payment types?

You must set the surcharge at the level of the average cost of acceptance of the lowest cost system; that is, no higher than the lowest permitted surcharge.

Example
If your average cost of acceptance for Visa Debit is 1 per cent, for Visa Credit is 1.5 per cent, and for American Express is 2.5 per cent, you would be permitted to charge the same level of surcharge for each payment system, but it would need to be 1 per cent as that is the lowest of all payment systems.

You would not be allowed to use the average of those three figures (that is, 1 + 1.5 + 2.5 = 5 divided by 3 = 1.6 per cent).

What penalties apply?

If the ACCC believes that a business has charged a payment surcharge which is excessive, they can issue an infringement notice to the business:

600 penalty units ($108,000) for a listed corporation

60 penalty units ($10,800) for a body corporate

12 penalty units ($2,160) for a person other than a body corporate.

We can also take court action against a business, in which we can seek pecuniary penalties:

6,471 penalty units ($1,164,780) for a body corporate

1,295 penalty units ($233,100) for a person other than a body corporate.